Kraken cryptocurrency exchange review

What is Kraken?

Kraken is a centralised, US-based cryptocurrency exchange. Kraken makes it easy for both new and experienced crypto traders to buy or sell a variety of well-known tokens, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and many others. For experienced traders who are confident in their market predictions, Kraken also allows trading in futures or on margins. The company offers a variety of detailed guides that help traders further understand the intricacies of spot or leveraged trading, and as little as $5 can be enough to get started. Originally launched in 2013 in San Francisco, Kraken was one of the earliest platforms in the industry. It has maintained its legacy status by educating users and constantly improving security, usability, and adding cryptocurrencies.

• If this is your first exchange: Take advantage of the large variety of guides offered by Kraken to become knowledgeable on cryptocurrency, its underlying technology, as well as the different forms of trading, such as spot trading, margin trading or leveraged contracts. Doing so will improve your ability to trade, understand the market, and realise why some coins or tokens may gain or lose value quickly and how you can take advantage of this.
• If you're switching exchanges: Unlike many other platforms, Kraken has committed the time and energy to creating a high-quality system and easy-to-use UI (user interface) that is pleasant to look at and good for navigating multiple features. An experienced crypto trader will be relieved at how easy it is to trade, move crypto around and manage assets.

Verdict: Is Kraken any good?

Kraken is a solid choice for users who wish to take full advantage of its educational guides, simple UI, and decent range of coins compared to other centralised exchanges. While a decentralised exchange (DEX) may offer more uncommon tokens, Kraken offers a variety of trading options, such as leverage and margin, which are unlikely to be provided by a DEX.

While funding your account is not particularly convenient, crypto can easily be transferred to Kraken to trade if you are coming from a different exchange.

What to know about Kraken

Kraken has a unique and personal customer support system that is helpful to people who trade often or have questions about the platform. Kraken has excellent phone and chat support, and frequent traders are assigned a personal account representative who will receive questions and requests.

Finder ratings

Supported cryptocurrencies
Transferring money or assets
Fees and costs
Ease of use
Customer service
Staking / earn rating?
Trustworthiness / security
Overall score	4.5

Kraken's supported cryptocurrencies

Kraken offers a wide range of cryptocurrencies, totalling over 130. Most popular cryptocurrencies are listed on Kraken, as well as some lesser-known, niche tokens such as Axie Infinity, Moonbeam and Mango. However, Australian customers are limited in the currencies they have access to, with notable absentees including Binance Coin and Monero.

While Binance offers over 500 cryptocurrencies and Coinbase only 50, Kraken has a medium offering that allows it to compete with other centralised exchanges to attract users who want a curated, vetted range of cryptocurrencies to purchase and hold.

Transferring fiat and cryptocurrency

Kraken offers a couple of fiat funding methods and supported fiat currencies. There is a minimum deposit of $5 for Australian bank/Osko transfers, and the processing times are 0–5 business days depending on the method used. Withdrawals for fiat have the same processing time, and there are no fees for any method but SWIFT transfers.

Crypto deposit and withdrawal times depend on network congestion, but they are processed instantly.

Kraken fees and costs

For Australian customers, every deposit method comes without a fee. Fiat withdrawals are also generally fee-less, although transactions made with SWIFT will incur a $35 fee. Crypto deposits are free apart from network fees, while crypto withdrawal fees vary by asset. There are minimum withdrawals for both fiat and crypto.

Kraken charges a 1.5% trading fee for using a stablecoin to buy a cryptocurrency, such as if you use USDT to purchase Bitcoin. It charges 0.9% for using fiat or a stable coin to purchase a different stable coin. Fees are charged on a per-trade basis. This is through the instant buy option.

Kraken Pro offers trading discounts on maker and taker fees that decrease as 30-day trading volume increases, starting at 0.16% for maker fees and 0.26% for taker fees. They can go as low as zero for makers and 0.10% if enough capital is traded during the 30-day period.

Fiat withdraw and deposit fees

Crypto withdrawal and deposit fees

What is it like to use Kraken?

Kraken has a UI system geared towards more advanced trading, so it may be overwhelming to a new trader who is unfamiliar with charting, terminology or advanced trading techniques.

Thankfully, Kraken has a variety of features and advantages that can help new traders get up to speed. These also allow advanced crypto traders to navigate Kraken quicker.

Mobile app
Kraken's mobile app is informative and can track daily volume, market cap and 15-minute price changes. The app can be used as a complement to the website, allowing trading on the go, and it can even be a suitable choice for traders who only use a phone or tablet.

UI
The Kraken staking interface is clean and simple. It keeps all of your staked coins in a single place, giving you a total reward value and an averaged APY on your staked assets. It also makes it easy to stake or un-stake your cryptocurrencies if you wish to start or discontinue earning rewards.

Knowledge base
While Kraken can seem difficult to new traders, it believes anyone can become an informed user who makes their own charts in no time. Learning about the resources on different cryptocurrencies, their use-cases, and how coins on the same blockchain function within an ecosystem can quickly train a new user to make informed choices when buying or selling crypto.

Orders
While some exchanges require the use of a dedicated trading terminal to spot trade, Kraken makes creating an order painless, with the current spot price, order type and estimated price easy to locate.

KYC
Verifying your identity on Kraken is no trouble at all, with your personal data being confirmed in a matter of minutes. This allows you to immediately deposit fiat or cryptocurrency to start trading on the exchange. Each level of verification unlocks new features and increases limits.

Does Kraken have good customer support?

Kraken support is very accessible and can be reached in a variety of mediums depending on the urgency or the difficulty of the issue.

Phone support is available from 8am to 8pm AEST, and chat support is available 24/7.

	Support offered	Wait times
Contact us form		6+ hours
Live chat		2+ minutes
Ticket request		15+ minutes

List of services on Crypto.com

Trading on Kraken

Kraken offers a variety of trading options for its users. This includes instant buy, spot market, futures and margin trading. The instant buy option is the most convenient, while the spot market offers reduced fees comparatively. Futures and margin trading is only recommended for advanced traders.

Earning on Kraken

Kraken offers the option to stake a large 15 cryptocurrencies with competitive rewards, including 23% on KAVA, 6% on Solana, and 12% on Polkadot.

Kraken does not offer lending or yield farming services currently. It is unknown if these services will be provided in the future.

Kraken Promotions

Kraken has an affiliate program. Qualified clients can give out an affiliate link that gives them 20% of the trading fees collected from the referred client's trades.

Kraken trust rating

Past hacks

In its 10-year history, Kraken has not had any hack take place on its platform. A majority of assets managed by Kraken are kept offline, making it extremely difficult for hackers to locate and steal them.

Security audits on Kraken

Kraken is often audited by independent accounting firms, most recently by Armanino on 31 December 2021. Kraken accounts come with standard modern security features, such as SMS codes to confirm withdrawals, email confirmation, as well as 2-factor authentication (2FA). Kraken is registered and compliant with the Australian regulatory body AUSTRAC.

Kraken Insurance

Digital assets stored on Kraken are uninsured, as digital assets are not subject to federal deposit insurance. While Kraken has never been hacked, it has prepared a $100 million fund in the event the exchange is breached. If assets are ever stolen, users will be compensated from the fund.

Signing up on Kraken

Step 1. Register email and password

The first step to trade crypto on Kraken is to create an account by registering your email and password.

Step 2. Verify your email

Once your account is created, a security email will be sent to your address to confirm that it belongs to you. Once confirmed, your Kraken account is now at the base level, meaning you can access trading options, but not participate in spot trading until your ID is submitted and verified.

Step 3. Confirm your identity

The next step in KYC (know your customer) is to submit a copy of your government-issued ID. Once accepted, you will be able to begin depositing and trading cryptocurrency.

Step 4. Increase account security

Now that assets are stored on your Kraken account, security should be increased to prevent your crypto from being stolen. Kraken supports 2FA and email confirmations for withdrawals, and these should be utilised.

Compare Kraken against other exchanges

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Name	Product	Deposit methods	Fiat Currencies	Cryptocurrencies
Digital Surge Cryptocurrency Exchange 4.7★★★★★(124) Finder Award		Bank transfer, Cryptocurrency, POLi, Osko, PayID	AUD	303 cryptocurrencies	Finder Exclusive: Receive $10 BTC on sign-up and verification. An Australia-based exchange with a focus on simplicity that allows users to purchase a range of cryptocurrencies with AUD.	Go to site View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
CoinSpot Cryptocurrency Exchange 4.3★★★★★(297)		Bank transfer, BPAY, Cash, Cryptocurrency, POLi, PayID	AUD	368 cryptocurrencies	CoinSpot lets you buy, sell and swap 100s of cryptos from its simple-to-use desktop or app trading accounts.	Go to site View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...
Swyftx Cryptocurrency Exchange 4.2★★★★★(187)		Bank transfer, Credit card, Cryptocurrency, Debit card, Osko, PayID	AUD, NZD	313 cryptocurrencies	Finder Exclusive: Receive $20 BTC on sign-up and verification. Buy and sell a wide range of cryptocurrencies at competitive rates on this Australian exchange.	Go to site View details	Compare	loading Fetching your data...

Disclaimer: Star ratings are only displayed for products with 10 or more reviews.

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Frequently asked questions

• What countries are supported by Kraken?

  Kraken is available globally, minus restricted countries. Restricted countries may include those to which the United States has embargoed goods and services.

• Is there a Kraken app?

  Yes. The Kraken app is called Kraken Pro.

  It's available for iOS and Android, and aims to offer a complete mobile trading experience on both the Kraken spot and futures markets.

• What's the verification process for Kraken?

  The verification process varies depending on what verification level you require.

  Verification level	Requires	Gives
  Starter	Name, phone number, email, physical address, date of birth	Cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals, trading
  Intermediate	As above, plus valid ID and proof of residence	As above, plus fiat currency deposits and withdrawals, higher limits, futures trading
  Pro	As above, plus completion of a KYC questionnaire	As above, plus dark pool trading, corporate account creation, OTC desk access, highest limits

• What customer support does Kraken offer?

  Kraken offers multilingual customer service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and every day of the year, including on major holidays.

  However, among the positive feedback, there are also many user reviews where people complain of Kraken customer service being readily available, but unable to address their issue.